The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

I didn’t have long before I started feeling some of the repercussions. Jasmine glared at me when I left first period. Guess Amber and Mandy had found her. Grant and Bryce were also glaring at me, but not as much as the girls. And Sasha—don’t get me started.

When I walked up to my locker, I caught Sasha writing, ‘whore’ in permanent maker on it.

I grabbed the pen from her hand and smirked. “Your locker’s a few down.”

“You don’t even know what you did. You have no idea,” she taunted smugly, grabbing her pen and leaving.

Well—yeah, I did. Because I’d done it at Pedlam too. Yeah. That was the kicker. I’d been the one to cause the two rifts in Pedlam, between Brian’s group and Crispin’s. Brian had never been the instigator. He’d been the muscle, but the brain—everything else—that was me. And most everyone knew it. Brian was just the mascot.

But I’d been happy letting him stay that way.

Which is probably the real reason why Crispin hates me so much. And why the ‘rift’ had coincidentally disappeared when I left for Rawley.

The thing was…I hadn’t been sleeping with Crispin.

Like I was sleeping with Tray.

This might mess things up—a bit.

“Way to go,” Larkins shouted, slapping me on the shoulder as he passed by.

Word did get around fast. I even saw Molly grinning, before ducking behind a locker. I caught a flush in her cheeks—which never happened.

And Honey and Bit. When I turned from my locker, there they were. Smiling. Preening.

“Hey,” I greeted half-heartedly.

“We heard,” Honey spoke up. “And I told her.” She nudged Bit a little. “She’s okay. Mad. But we’re good. Both of us. A

nd it’s only fair if she sleeps with Bryce next time.”

I rolled my eyes. That wasn’t the point.

I tried to reiterate the point to them, but it was done half-ass. I had to worry about second period and who was in that class.

Wait. I normally went to study hall. Molly told me I actually had health.

“Where’s health class?” I asked them.

“Oh.” Honey brightened. “We’re in health too. Mr. Hauge always says your name in roll call. And of course, someone says you think you have study hall this period. It’s turned into this comedy bit actually.”

Not today. I followed behind them.

I paused in the doorway before forcing myself to move forward.

Tray was in this class.

And, judging by the look in his eyes, he was angry. Guess he heard about my blow up. And he wasn’t happy.

“Miss,” Mr. Hauge directed at me, “you are?”

“Taryn Matthews.”

“Oh. Miss Matthews, you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence. I see someone took it upon themselves to let you know that we are, in fact, not study hall and that you are, if fact, supposed to be here.”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Good. Take a seat. I see an empty one by Mr. Helms.”